Customer Satisfaction on the Trains

ORC International in the UK has recently won the one-year contract to conduct First Great Western Trains' customer satisfaction research, with effect from December 2002. ORC International will conduct 400 interviews a month across the FGW region and the results will be presented on a quarterly basis.

First Great Western Trains (FGW) is to extend its continuous customer satisfaction programme through the use of advanced regression analysis techniques. The analysis, which further enhances FGW's existing research, will enable the train operator to identify the individual aspects of performance and service that have the greatest influence on customer satisfaction. Using the findings will enable FGW to focus efforts in these areas to meet the needs of its customers.

Louise Blyth, head of marketing, FGW said: 'In May, First Great Western achieved its highest customer satisfaction score of 90% in two years. Customer confidence fell dramatically after the Hatfield rail incident, but we hope that our on-going programme of investment and improvement will ensure the rise in customer satisfaction continues. It remains essential that we identify areas for further improvement which are going to have the most positive impact on customers' journey experience. We aim to improve our service to existing customers and encourage more people to trial rail travel. We believe that this can only be achieved by identifying where our customers are expecting improvement, and targeting these areas with practical action plans and strategic developments'.

Nick Mawditt, divisional manager at ORC International, added: 'We are delighted to take up the customer satisfaction mantle for First Great Western. We aim to apply our experience of working with retail, finance and other transport companies in this area and, in particular, will apply our latest analysis tools and techniques to ensure that what we learn about the First Great Western customer can be transferred into actionable and projected decision-making'.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

• ORC International
• All news
• MrWeb info